


Snitched Away

by InkyKinky



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Gryffindor!Keith (Voltron), Herbology Class, Hogwarts, Hogwarts Sixth Year, Hufflepuff!Hunk (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Is A Pine Tree, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Lance (Voltron) is a Dork, M/M, Magic, Mutual Pining, Orphan Keith (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Quidditch, Quidditch Captain Lance (Voltron), Ravenclaw!Lance (Voltron), Sexual Jokes, Slytherin!Pidge (Voltron), The Pool Scene, Witchcraft, Witches, Wizards, potion class, sexual wizard jokes, the galra are teachers, the secret prefect pool, wizard jokes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-03-06 15:50:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13414557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkyKinky/pseuds/InkyKinky
Summary: Keith hated how Lance boasted about his love life. Noteveryoneneeded to know who his new conquest would be, least of all Keith. It always went bitter down his throat and made his stomach cling weirdly, and it didn’t help that the new Ravenclaw Quidditch captain was actually popular with … well, basically everyone in the school and their mum.In Keith's opinion, Fridays are the worst days as they are full with Lance McClain and sometimes he just really needs a break for his pining ass but fate has another idea.





	1. Love Potions

**Author's Note:**

> The Hogwarts AU nobody wanted but here is it anyway.
> 
> Not beta-read whatsoever, we're flying blind on this one (as basically always.)  
> Rated M because sexual language/possible sexual content.
> 
> Also yes I know it might seem lazy sorting but I genuinely think it's quite fitting...?  
> Lance sees things from different angles, Keith tries to do the right thing all of the time, Pidge is a little shit (okay that is kinda 1-dimensional for Slytherins - she really cares deeply for her kin), and Hunk is just. HUNK. Like, if Hufflepuff needed a posterboy, it'd be Hunk, let's be real.  
> Shiro used to be a Hufflepuff, Allura was also a Ravenclaw.

Keith really tried to not look up. He really was busy chopping his Sopophorous beans and Professor Sendak really wasn’t easy to please so he really wanted to get at least an E for his Draught of the Living Death because yes, Potions actually was important as a future auror. And Keith really wanted to become one because fighting people was actually something he was genuinely good at.

But Lance McClain wouldn’t have anything of that.

“– so, I know I should be more cautious, y’know because she’s a Slytherin, but, like Pidge is also a Slytherin and pretty chill, and Quiznak, Nyma’s really hot so whatever, guess I’ll die but it’s totally worth it.”

Keith hated how Lance boasted about stuff like that. Not _everyone_ needed to know who his new conquest would be, least of all Keith. It always went bitter down his throat and made his stomach cling weirdly, and it didn’t help that the new Ravenclaw Quidditch captain was actually popular with … well, basically everyone in the school and their mum.

“Heard she actually wanted to fly on Kogane’s broomstick, if you know what I mean,” Vince Bell noted with a sly grin, and Keith’s ears felt very hot. He tried to concentrate on his Sopophorus beans, even though he knew half his class’ eyes were on him, especially Lance’s piercing blue ones, wild with affront.

“ _She wouldn’t._ ”

“She’s hanging with Rolo, I think it’s all the ‘bad boy’ vibe that’s doing it for her.”

Even though their conservation got lower in volume, Keith still could hear every single word and got bright red like a tomato.

“Plu-ease, she could do so much better than Keith, which is why she’s on a date with m–”

“Yeah, we got it, you scored it with Hunter, can you just shut up already?” Keith hissed and was close to throwing his dagger at the two guys.

Lance’s face morphed from exasperation to a smirk within seconds.

“Oh wow, petty much, Mullet? Didn’t expect you to be this jealous. But really, you and Nyma Hunter? That poor girl.”

“What the fuck, Lance?! She isn’t even my type!”

“What even _is_ your type, Kogane, I mean I haven’t seen you with anyone, like, ever.”

Keith really, really hated how very quick he was with his answer.

“Tall, dark, and handsome. Should know when to shut up, though.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means that _you_ are definitely not on my list to, how did you call it? ‘Ride my broomstick’?”

Keith really wanted to frame a picture of Lance’s expression and hang it over his bed. Yes flirting with his big ol’ crush definitely wasn’t Keith’s strongest suit, but white lies never hurt anybody and it was so worth it.

Or so he thought for glorious two seconds.

“Which part disqualifies me? Am I too short? I can assure you, my wand knows exactly how to charm you either way.”

Keith nearly choked on his spit. Okay, the wink was definitely too much for his nerves.

“Do you _ever_ shut up?!”

“Well, I also know how to work my mouth on _other_ things if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Get a room!” someone yelled from the back of the room, and Keith prayed to every spiritual being in the world that Professor Sendak didn’t hear any of their bickering.

“There’s a pretty comfy broom closet right around the corner,” Lance muttered under his breath, still loud enough and definitely intended for Keith to hear. Still, there was not a single reason why Lance McClain should be serious about it at all. It was all a joke on Keith’s expanse, and he grew tired of it.

“Don’t you have a date with Nyma?”

“I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t mind a ménage à trois.”

Oh how Keith really wanted to wipe away this smug grin on McClain’s face. It was a miracle how a single person could be this insufferable, and the worst part was that he was even considering it for the better half of a second. Then he remembered Nyma would be there, too, which really wasn’t something he’d be into.

“Didn’t think you’d share, McClain,” Keith snarled because, of course, his brain thought it’d be a good idea to delve deeper into a conversation about a possible threesome with Nyma Hunter.

“I can be very generous sometimes, Mullet. Lover Boy Lance has a lot of love to give.”

Keith pinched the bridge of his nose solely for the purpose to not witness yet another smug wink from Lance.

“Wow, yeah, okay, I get why you got so many girlfriends – I, too, would break up with you immediately if that’s the bullshit you spew twenty-four seven.”

“To do that, you would need to be my boyfriend in first place, Kogane.”

“Oh, are you offering?” It would have sounded hopeful if Keith hadn’t tried to taunt Lance even more.

“Well, I would, but _unfortunately_ I apparently aren’t your type _at all_. No can do, I guess…”

_This motherfucker._

Keith could feel the flaming heat rise in his cheeks and the tip of his ears.

“Yeah, no can do,” he hummed, so terribly angry at himself, at Lance, at this stupid crush that makes him say things that actually would be the last thing he wanted to say but it’s so easy to get carried away in things that he didn’t really mean. Angry at the school because the period wouldn’t end for another quarter and time just dragged on so slowly. Angry at the sudden silence on Lance’s part.

Keith managed not to look at Lance for the remaining Potion Class. He pointedly ignored him, concentrating entirely on the task at hand, preparing his potion to simmer until their next class and neatly stacking away his ingredients, as though nothing had happened and Lance McClain didn’t exist.

As soon as the bell rang, Keith was out of the dungeon, a place he still, after five years at Hogwarts, didn’t like in the slightest, bits and pieces of Lance’s dating schemes with Nyma ringing in his ears because Lance’s voice carried over the chatter of everyone else.

Keith was happy for lunch to distract him, even if it was just to stuff his mouth as quickly as possible so he could escape to the Gryffindor common room. Despite popular belief, the common room was relatively empty at this time of the day, so Keith was happy to have a free period right after lunch. He sat down in one of the more comfy armchairs by the fireplace with his cat Mercutio curled up in his lap while he read and took notes for his Transformation class. Mercutio was pitch black and originally inherited from Shiro. Shiro had been in his sixth year when Keith came to Hogwarts, and kind of adopted him as a little brother as soon as Keith was desperately searching for Platform 9 3/4. Keith was a little heartbroken when he didn’t get into Hufflepuff, and even though Shiro met with him as often as prefect and later headboy duties on top of his homework allowed him to, Keith staid a loner, more or less.

He tried to fly under the radar, this was what he had learned at the orphanage, if he didn’t draw attention to himself, if nobody spotted how different he was, they at least would leave him alone. He tried to tame his tamper and pour all his anger, spite, and passion into academics, and by now it had become a convenient excuse to not meet with people.

When Shiro graduated with flying colours, he at least could convince Keith to take up Quidditch where he was a quite passable seeker and probably would still be a valuable member of the team if he hadn’t been banned from it for the rest of his school time due to a ‘disciplinary issue.’ Even though Keith should have been glad not to be expelled from Hogwarts completely, he still thought that Lotor guy deserved it.

That was earlier this season, and Keith definitely felt how much he missed flying in his past time, and it hasn't even been full three weeks yet. The worst was, Lance McClain had been promoted Captain to the Ravenclaw team this year, too, and of course had to rub it into his face, now that he was forbitten to get even close to a blutcher.

Mercutio’s rumbling purr calmed him down a bit at the thought of McClain – really, he hated how often his thoughts happened to wander to his insufferable smile with this cocky glint in his eyes – and he tried to concentrate more on his homework. However, the Transfiguration texts have never been quite interesting, and the fireplace made him feel cosy enough to nod off pretty quickly.

When he woke up, Mercutio didn’t lie on his lap anymore and a couple of first-years argued over their Charms essays. With the creeping suspicion that he had slept longer than he should have, a short glimpse at his watch confirmed that he was at least twenty minutes too late to his Herbology class.

With a curse, he jumped to his feet and gathered books and parchment, and made his way towards the portrait of the Fat Lady. She chided him for disturbing her own beauty sleep but luckily a grim look from Keith’s side was enough to make her move and give away the entry.

He ran down an endless number of corridors and stairs like a madman, not bothering to apologise to the five students he ran into and the countless others he accidentally hit with his bag (okay, when he crossed Lotor’s path, he definitely hit him on purpose.) Keith currently loathed the fact that Herbology still took place in the greenhouses and not some more convenient classroom.

 

* * *

 

Keith Kogane slid open the door from Greenhouse Number 3 with a red face and heavily panting, almost half an hour late with ruffled hair and robes, his dark eyes frantically mustering the interior until his eyes caught sight of Professor Thace.

Lance cought.

“I’m so sorry, Professor, I overslept, this won’t happen again,” Keith said and ducked his head apologetically.

Lance choked on his own spit. _Did this guy know what time it was?!_

Apparently, Professor Thace thought the same about this blatantly stupid excuse for being late for an afternoon class, but he just huffed with a nod.

“Mr Kogane, please pair up with Mr McClain, he can explain today’s task to you. Also please hand in your homework.”

Lance wanted to scream.

This was the least desirable outcome Kogane’s lateness could cause, and Lance really had to bite his tongue not to start yelling at him. Hunk next to him, however, already signalled to Shay to pair up together, and, wow, he really couldn’t get out of this affair now.

While Keith was scrambling to pull out his essay out of his bag, Lance was just moments from throwing himself into one of the Venomous Tentaculas they were supposed to pot today, their morning Potions period way too vivid in his memory and his face flaming hot.

It all had been a mere joke but with Keith it always was a gamble. Lance wasn’t even sure if he’s ever seen a smile on Kogane’s lips, like, ever. Did Keith know how to laugh?

Lance got torn out of his train of thoughts by the noise of a bag crashing to the ground, and there he was, Keith Kogane, grumpy as ever.

“So, McClain, got any instructions for me?”

_Wow, his voice was hoarse._

“Did you test the broom closet in the dungeon I mentioned earlier, or why are you late?”

_By Merlin’s pants, why did his brain summon_ this _up again, he really wanted to bury it deep, deep down for nobody to find, like, ever._ Lance smacked himself mentally.

“I _said_ I overslept.”

“Which is completely believable,” Lance supplied with a smug grin. Okay, yes, he loved to rile Keith up.

Keith huffed.

“Well, I did oversleep. Wasn’t the closet reserved for you and Nyma, anyway?”

“Well, actually, I was offering it up to you, Kogane,” Lance said nonchalantly, preparing some flowerpots with soil.

“Didn’t expect you to be serious, for once.”

_Ouch. Well, how would he get out of this one?_

It wasn’t like Lance _wasn’t_ interested per say because, really, anyone would’ve liked to tap that ass of grouchy resident bad-boy of Gryffindor Keith Kogane. He kind of was – in the non-official heartbreaker scene of Hogwarts that Lance kind of happened to be a part of – the Holy Grail of Dates and Love-Making as he was smoking hot but so unapproachable and mysterious that literally no-one had even the slightest idea of how to get into Kogane’s pants, not to mention his heart. There were rumours of people claiming to see Keith or at least got a heated make-out session out of him but nobody had even seen him with anyone, nobody knew what he was into, and so Keith Kogane was the Enigma Lance was set out to hack.

Well, and riling Keith up also did something to him, but he really didn’t want to delve into that right now. He currently was trying his luck with Nyma, and Keith was more like a background fantasy anyway. Everyone needs a little unrequited flirting every now and then, right?

“Hey, when am I ever not serious?” Lance said in played affront because that was the best he could come up with.

Keith had to roll his eyes. “So, what are we doing with these?” he said, obviously changing the topic. Lance realised that they most definitely should get to actually work soon as all the other pairs already were on their way.

 

* * *

 

“We’re potting the Venomous Tentaculas. First, one of us is gonna stun ours, then we try to get it up here with its old pot, probably need to re-stun it by that time. Then we put it into the new pot, all easy peasy. Where is your safety gear?” Lance said as nonchalant as ever without even looking up, just pulling a perfectly plucked eyebrow.

“Oh.” There had been something nagging at the back of his mind the entire time, and now he remembered what it had been. “Well, I sure don’t need it as soon as we stunned it, right?”

“If you have a death wish, sure.”

Wow, he had forgotten how cold Lance could be sometimes.

“I will ask Professor Thace if he has a spare,” Keith muttered in defeat before Lance could even start a rant on the importance of safety measurements.

He dragged himself up to the teacher’s desk and came back with a cloak too long and wide for him that it looked like he was drowning in fabric. At least the gloves were somewhat his size.

Lance was cackling when he saw Keith.

“Har har, can we get started, or what?” he grumbled as Lance was wiping away a tear.

“Sure thing.”

 

* * *

 

As it turned out, it was not as easy peasy as Lance had claimed. They had to stun each and every tentacle of the plant as it wouldn’t stay stunned completely for more than a couple of seconds. While one was dodging the tentacles that had come to life again to dig out the plant, the other kept a watchful eye over the plant and stunned it without accidentally hitting the other. A lot of yelling and screaming was involved, and after a while they came to the agreement that Lance would be stunning the tentacula as he had better aim. Eventually, the plant sat in a new pot, they had given it the last drop of fertiliser and even clipped off dry and dead tentacles.

“We make a good team,” Lance said with a bright, satisfied grin on his face and offered his first for a fist-bump. Keith indulged him, he himself couldn’t force down his own proud smile as he realised that, yeah, they made a good team.

He had to bite his lip so his face didn’t split in two. Wow, did he flush easily.

“I’ll … I’ll bring back the cloak now,” he said while stripping out of the enormously over-sized safety gear. Lance chuckled again.

“Do you have classes after this?” Lance asked as Keith returned for his bag.

“It’s dinner time, Lance,” Keith deadpanned because, really, nobody had anything after this. They usually were happily falling into bed after wrestling with a new plant every week.

“Oh, yeah, right.” Lance sounded almost … disappointed?

“See ya,” he mumbled, he stretched a little and let out a small, satisfied moan, then grabbed his bag and made his way over to the exit.

 


	2. Bubble Baths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Y'all remember the Pool Scene?

Dinner was relatively unspectacular, a few second-years just lived through one of the worst jump scares of Sir Nicholas’ head’s sudden appearance in their chicken wings. Keith chatted a little with the ghost and then decided to take a hot, long bath as soon as he finished eating, his back hurting from crouching so much.

Keith took his time from the Gryffindor tower to the Captain’s bathroom, he really enjoyed the empty corridors at night when Hogwarts wasn’t as busy as in the day. Potting the tentaculas had been more tiring than he had expected.

With a satisfied hum he entered the exclusive bathroom, put away his pyjamas and morning gown neatly and then began to strip. Everything went almost automatic, he was in his own cosy headspace with currently no worry in the world as the whole weekend laid ahead. He wrapped a towel around his hips and padded towards the slightly hidden bathtub area, and came to an abrupt stop.

In the tub – full tub, that is, _how did he not notice all the water streaming into it?!_ – sat Lance McClain, his eyes wide as saucers and his mouth gaping like a fish out of water.

“Nonononono _no_!” Lance was almost screaming, “What the hell are _you_ doing _here_?!”

“I want to take a bath?” Keith said, a little perplex himself because, really, how often do you see your secret crush from another house practically naked? He wasn’t sure if he should appreciate all the soap bubbles or curse them, but currently he tended towards the former simply for his sanity’s sake.

“No, I mean, this is for prefects and Quidditch captains! You shouldn’t even be here!”

“For a very brief two months I, too, have been a Quidditch captain, thank you very much. Not my fault if they can’t bother to change the password.”

Lance’s face turned sour at that.

“Okay but, like, can you leave now? It’s occupied.”

“How long do you need?” Keith was on the way to turn around and leave for Lance’s privacy’s sake until Lance answered:

“One or two hours?”

“What?! Hell no!” Keith almost got a whiplash from how quickly he turned back to Lance. “I’m not gonna wait this long!”

“Officially, you aren’t even supposed to be here!”

“Just because Lotor shit-talked about werewolves!” Keith was fuming. He really didn’t want to think about Lotor right now. “Listen, this thing is big enough for the two of us, it’s basically a swimming pool. I’m sweaty and naked, and I’m not gonna wait for an hour or two and later get caught by Filch or some shit.”

Lance scowled.

“Look, you stay on one side of the pool, and I’ll stay at the other, and we’ll be far, far away from each other. Very. Far. Away,” Keith said, “I’m not looking, you’re not looking, and we’ll be fine.”

The other boy huffed but eventually agreed with a grumble.

Keith, even though his heart was beating like crazy, unceremoniously dropped his towel and slid into the giant tub. The water was a nice temperature, just perfect to relax tired muscles, and the herbs mixed into it healing them. He hadn’t noticed that he’d closed his eyes but it was so nice and cosy that he was sure to fall asleep any second now. He sighed contently.

He probably really would’ve dozed off again (really, he probably should work on his sleep schedule or something) if a bump into his shin hadn’t brought him back.

“Sorry,” Lance mumbled, looking almost as sleepy as Keith felt, with a glowing blush spread on his cheeks. The water really was quite warm.

They were quiet for a few minutes until Lance broke the silence again.

“So, why have you been late, though? Don’t worry, I can keep a secret.”

Keith almost had to snort because of his eyebrow wiggle.

“I just fell asleep over homework, that’s all, really unspectacular.”

“No shagging in the broom closet?”

Keith wasn’t even upset about Lance’s smug grin. The water made him mellow.

“Nope. That’s more your style, I guess,” he had to laugh.

“Under closer inspection, you’re really boring, Kogane. I don’t even know why everyone’s so into you.” Lance leaned back and closed his eyes, his lips stretching into a satisfied smile.

“That’s a new one,” muttered Keith.

“Hm?”

“Well, so far I haven’t seen people queueing up for me?”

Lance had to laugh.

“How can you be this oblivious, by Merlin’s beard, that’s adorable.”

“Lance, there literally is no-one out to get me. No-one’s interested. That would be actually the most obvious reason as to why ‘shagging in the broom closet’ is not why I was late.”

“Well, I heard of one wizard who was doing it with his patronus, so…”

“Oh my God, you’re so gross!” Keith laughed and pushed water into Lance’s direction. Lance screeched as he tried to evade the water wall and dunked his head underwater completely instead. He came back up cackling.

“No, but really, you can’t think of anyone wanting to, like, do it with you?”

Keith was startled by Lance’s unbelieving expression. He looked so openly surprised that Keith’s head was spinning, thinking about every little hint and detail he might have missed, but he really couldn’t think of one instance where anyone had shown even the slightest interest.

“No, not really, no.” He sounded terribly defeated. “It’s kind of embarrassing if you think about it. I’m an adult now and have zero experience.”

Gosh, why was he oversharing so much? This was _Lance_ he was talking to, one of the biggest blabbermouths of Hogwarts, not to forget his self-proclaimed rival (he still didn’t know what this was about after three years of their ‘rivalry’) who just waited to be better in something than Keith and continuously had to rub it into his face once he found out that one thing, primary womanizer of the school, and, last but not least, his big gay crush – Lance McClain was the _last_ person Keith should have told about any of this.

Lance giggled.

Lance’s giggle actually was a really cute sound and if they had been in any other situation, Keith happily would’ve stashed that memory away while desperately suppressing a fond smile, but he had just opened up to someone about one of his biggest insecurities and his stomach was churning with bitter thoughts and the bottomless feeling of sadness. He knew it was ridiculous. But having it confirmed like this was a horrible feeling. He bit his cheek, trying to hide his eyes behind his fridge because he could already feel his jaw clench and the lump in his throat tighten, it was only a matter of time until he cried.

“You basically could have anyone you want, Kogane,” Lance said, still the hint of a grin in his voice.

“You don’t need to say stuff like this to make me feel better, McClain. I know there’s no-one. I’m not like you. Not even close.” Keith tried to concentrate on his hands floating on the water surface, equal parts distraction and reason not to look at Lance while he could start sobbing any second now.

“That’s not true.” Lance sounded closer than just a few moments ago, and when Keith looked up again, he was halfway over next to Keith. “Also, shouldn’t you think about who you want instead of who wants you?”

“It takes two to tango,” Keith said uncommittedly because, really, he was thinking about Lance a lot as it was and it made it even more obvious that he was someone he just couldn’t have.

“As much as this is true,” Lance got even closer and settled only a few centimetres next to Keith, “you can still woo people. Charm their pants off. That’s what I do.”

“I just don’t think that’s what I want. I want that he genuinely likes me and … stays. I don’t want it to be a meaningless conquest.”

Keith only heard Lance’s shaking inhale and immediately went white as a board. Oh shit shit shit, did he just come out to Lance? Was he making it weird? How horrible did it seem now that he insisted on sharing the bath? Which genuinely was a stupid idea, he should’ve waited those two hours, this was ridiculous, Jesus Christ –

“Okay, yeah, boys are a bit harder to woo than girls, but believe me, it still works with the right technique.”

“ _What?!_ ” Keith stared at Lance. Lance looked back, slightly amused.

“Wait, did you expect me to fish at only one shore?”

“Well, uhm, yes…?” Keith could feel his ears burning and was pretty sure his cheeks weren’t faring any better.

Now Lance really snorted a laughter, almost toppling over if he wouldn’t plant his face into the soap bubbles through this, and Keith was shocked into a stupor.

After what felt like the worst three minutes of Keith’s life, Lance finally had calmed down and had only a big fat grin sitting in his face.

“I really don’t know what to make out of you, Kogane. The thing Lotor and I had was a big thing last year, I thought that had made it obvious to even to Professor Smythe.”

“I don’t give much on school gossip, thank you very much.” Truth be told, he had started to blatantly ignore everything that surrounded Lance’s latest conquest for the sake of his own sanity. Now he had only one more reason to hate Lotor, but that was another thing entirely.

Lance snorted again, leaning his head on one had he had prepped on the tub’s edge, and eyed Keith curiously. Keith shifted a bit for his own comfort, treading the water a bit so bubbles stayed where they were supposed to be.

“So, I’m curious, who is Mr ‘Tall, Dark and Handsome’?”

“As if I’m telling you.” Keith was glad he could slip back into banter, grinning bashfully and looking at anything but Lance, whose eyes still roamed over his body in an analytical manner. His skin was prickling under his gaze and he felt really, really hot, especially as he saw Lance biting his lip from the corner of his eye.

“Pretty please?”

Keith laughed as Lance batted his eyelashes playfully. “No!”

“At least describe him a bit,” Lance started to whine. Keith sighed.

“Well, he’s tall, dark, and handsome.”

“Oh wow, what a reveal, Kogane.”

Keith could basically hear the pout, and had to laugh even more.

“What about you, anyways?” Keith turned around to fold his arms over the tub’s edge and lean his head onto them, facing towards Lance. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re into? What kind of guys?”

“Pshh, do you really wanna know, Kogane? You know that I don’t go for a certain type. That’s way too limiting.”

“Everyone has a type, in some ways.”

Keith was about to say something else but let Lance ponder a bit because he seriously seemed to think about it.

“Okay, “ he said after a while, “so, he should have an interesting personality, great hair, nice face, pretty eyes, a cute laugh, and, above all, a decent body hygiene. That’s pretty basic actually. If he has a nice ass and is easy to rile up, that’s a bonus, of course.”

Now that Lance had mentioned it, Keith realised that his body was floating on the surface, and he scrambled to get at least his butt more under water than how it was now – basically served on a silver platter for Lance to ogle as much as he pleased. Not that he didn’t really want Lance to _see_ , it was just … he didn’t want him to not _like_ what he was seeing.

“That’s all very subjective,” he said after a little pondering over whether or not he could match any of Lance’s criteria.

“Well, people are different, and everyone deserves their chance. You might be missing someone great if you don’t.”

“But what if – what if there is that one person who just feels right and is just the way you want your partner to be, would you still date someone else if they asked you?”

“First of all, I would approach that one person.” Lance now had his arms crossed over the tub’s edge as well, his body floating next to Keith’s.

“Yeah but if he is, let’s say, in a relationship, or is into someone else, would you still do it?”

“I guess I would confess but not necessarily initiate anything else.”

“Would you go for someone else, then?” Keith furrowed his brows and traced the pattern on the floor with his fingers just to escape Lance’s eyes once again. “Even if you knew you loved that person deeply, would you start something with someone else, even if you knew you couldn’t love them just like that?”

“I … don’t know…” Lance sounded sombre. “But to be honest, I’ve never had such deep feelings for anyone, at least in a romantic sense. It’s easier to let go that way. It’s more about being infatuated, not necessarily about being in love.”

“Do you even want to be in love? I mean, it’s quite convenient how you handle it. You don’t get so … attached.”

Lance sighed.

“That’s true. To be honest, I don’t even know. I find it dangerous to fall in love without even knowing the other person properly. It’s more of an idea of a person than the actual person.”

“But isn’t falling in love to love them even though they have parts that absolutely drive you up a wall? And that you know you want them because if they didn’t have even these parts, that wouldn’t be them? That you love their smile and kindness and cocky attitude as much as riling you up and teasing you, or their terrible jokes and being such a blabbermouth? Because you know if they didn’t have those, you’d miss something? Can’t you love them like this even if you aren’t really close? Because you see how they treat their friends, or their siblings, how they talk about what they’re passionate and how they talk back to you.”

“You have it bad, huh?” Lance shoved Keith playfully, and somehow Keith marvelled how Lance didn’t see himself in this description because it must have been so blatantly obvious that Keith actually just wanted to drown right now.

“I guess so.”

They just floated on the water for a while in silence, only the gurgling of the pipes and sloshing of the water filled the room. Keith wondered how long they’ve stayed in the bath by now, he knew his feet were probably terribly wrinkled but he didn’t want to leave, and neither did Lance apparently.

It was a weird situation, now that he thought about it, sharing a bath with his crush and the school Casanova, having a heart-to-heart conversation with a practical stranger because, really, even Shiro had to pull every little info out of his nose. It was strange to confide into Lance about himself above all things, but he made it so easy, like a perfected art on how to unravel the last of Keith’s secrets.

“You didn’t approach him yet, did you?” Lance asked tentatively after a while.

“No.” Keith began to trace the patterns on the floor once again.

“But why?”

“I’m scared.” His voice was so small.

“But about what? He can’t say more than ‘no.’” Lance observed Keith’s fingers. This felt strange.

“I don’t even know. Feelings are scary.” He thought for a bit because he actually never knew why, it had always just been a massive wall of anxiety and sadness. “What do you even do with all of your emotions once you figure out they’re useless? That there’s yet another person who doesn’t like you to be around? That you’re asking for too much, you’re always asking for too much because someone liking you back is just ridiculous and unrealistic.”

“Keith...” Lance cooed softly, as though he was talking to a hurting child to calm him down, and there Keith realised he had been crying, his cheeks were wet and his eyes wouldn’t stop tearing up. He sniffed and felt the big, suffocating lump in his throat. _Yep. Definitely crying. Gosh, how embarrassing._

“If I don’t tell him, I still am happy when he is and have to laugh about his nonsensical jokes without having to think about how this is not for me, how this will never be for me. It’s easier that way. Even if there’s only a small fraction of hope, there still is.”

“But what if you could be actually happy _with_ him?” Lance’s voice was hoarse as though he wasn’t used to use it, which was odd on its own.

“Just, how likely is that? Let’s be honest, I don’t even have friends here because nobody wants to put up with me, because despite being at a school full of witches and wizards, I’m still the weird one. I’m only good for – for what actually? I didn’t even stay on the Quidditch team for longer than two years, I don’t even know why I became the captain because everyone was right that I’m irrational and not a tactical person. I have fucking anger issues, I know that, but so does everyone else, and if I can’t even find some friends, then how the hell should I get someone liking me back?”

Keith was looking at Lance, scared more than anything because really, this slowly turned into the weirdest therapy session of his entire life, he just spilled secrets left and right, however dark and guarded they actually were. Shiro knew about most of his anxieties because he was Shiro and had observed Keith for almost half his life, but Keith rarely shared his darker thoughts with him, and Shiro had to be very tactile about it all to even get the least bit of information. And now he just threw everything at Lance, not knowing if the other boy even wanted to truly know. Lance had been surprisingly silent throughout the whole ordeal. He just stared back at Keith, probably letting everything sink in for a moment before he would run away screaming.

However, after a moment of reflection and despite Keith’s predictions, Lance just emitted a low “wow” and was then apparently stunned into silence again.

When he still didn’t say anything a few minutes later, Keith decided to turn around and dive underwater to wash his face and get the grime out of his hair as well, it really was necessary before his hands crumpled horribly, he hated that feeling.

When he came up again, Lance was sitting in the tub again and not floating around on his belly like before.

“I’m sorry. It’s stupid and just unreasonable and I actually know this but it somehow doesn’t work out anyway and it’s so exhausting.”

“It’s not stupid. Feelings are not stupid. It’s just funny because here I was, believing I was the only one with inferiority complexes, but alas…” It was a miracle how Lance still could find something … amusing about this, and it made Keith smile.

“You? An inferiority complex? You got to be kidding me.”

“No, it’s true, I guess I’m just overcompensating for the most of it. Anywho, that’s got to wait for another time because we’ve been hogging the bath for way too long now. My skin is all shrivelled like an old person.” And with these words, Lance McClain climbed out of the bathtub, presenting his rear to Keith in the best of ways as Keith was way too slow to look away in time.

“I didn’t expect you to want another bathroom encounter,” Keith said jokingly as he distracted himself from Lance as the latter was looking for his towel.

“Well, I thought of a more casual thing like having lunch together or studying or some crap. But you’re okay to bathe with, too, you’re not moving too much so I don’t really mind.”

“Oh, okay, cool,” Keith mumbled in surprise and climbed out of the tub as well and drew the stopper. He was glad his own towel wasn’t so far away and he easily could sling it around his hips while trying to figure out what this all meant.

Lance was padding away with a content hum on his lips, leaving Keith space to ponder, and ponder he did. Realisation hit him that he showed Lance what really nobody else would know, his guard was down so easily, and suddenly it made sense as to why he’d always been so defensive and hostile towards the other boy – deep down he had already known Lance could read him like an open book if he wasn’t careful enough. But how could he be so desperate to share such private things with someone like _Lance_ , they barely knew each other. It was so, _so_ stupid and yet Lance knew basically everything and wow, that wouldn’t end well.

Then Keith had to think about how Lance had said he was also into boys, and he had to smile. If he was honest, he didn’t even realise he did this. He slowly dried himself up, dazed by the fact that he and Lance had talked about at least an hour, that Lance could be nice and comforting towards him if he just wanted to.

Lance was kind.

He was really happy to discover this.

“Hey, Earth to Keith, are you alright?”

Keith snapped out of his thoughts by an already dressed Lance. He himself just managed to put his boxerbriefs on.

“Was the water too hot for you? Do you feel dizzy or something? Please don’t faint here on me, buddy.”

Wow okay, Lance was really close now, leaning towards him to check.

“Oh, nono, I’m alright,” Keith said, his ears turning pink to their close proximity, “just a bit sleepy, that’s it.”

“Are you sure? I mean you look like you’re burning up right now?” Lance laid a palm on Keith’s cheek and Keith would lie if he didn’t feel his heart stutter like crazy in his chest. he gulped.

“No, really, I’m fine. No circulation issues whatsoever. Stop worrying.”

“If you say so,” Lance said, squinting his eyes as though he still wasn’t convinced but at least he removed his hand and turned around.

“I just did.”

“Alright then. Hope you won’t get sick or something, don’t want you to miss the big game tomorrow!” Lance stopped on his way to the door again as though he wanted to say something else.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be there, and if it’s just to see how Hufflepuff will kick your ass.” Keith couldn’t help his grin.

“Don’t get your hopes up, Mullet, my team is in its best form for years. We will totally beat them, just you watch.” And with this, he left.

Keith huffed to himself, again this silly soft smile creeping onto his lips. As though he could stay away from a Quidditch match, let alone Lance McClain’s debut as a captain. After all, he was a masochist.

With the pace of a snail, he got dressed, lost in his daydreams of Lance leading a match, of them playing against each other, of Lance racing towards him, pushing against a wall, crushing their lips together –

Keith let out a small wimper and he couldn’t resist. He was the _worst_.

He couldn’t remember the last time he had some time to himself and he was embarrassed how easily he got riled up like that.

It took him another twenty minutes until he got back to the Gryffindor common room.

 


	3. Winning Charms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Ravenclaw captain has a crush and Quidditch ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo... it's been a while, I had the chapter almost done since forever but then deleted half of that because I hated it and since then I've only added bits and pieces and reworked them again and again.
> 
> Anyway, as today is my birthday and I wanted to have it the most self-indulgent way possible, I wrote almost 2k in roundabout 3 hours and here we are, the chapter is finally done. Cheers!  
> (not beta'ed, we die like men)

Lance McClain had a restless night.

Some might say that it’s a normal thing to have if the next day is your first Quidditch match of the season and you’re debuting as the new team captain, but Lance knew better than that. He had squishy feelings inside and he actually didn’t want to acknowledge what that meant, though on the other hand, it was too obvious even for him to live in denial.

Keith Kogane was _cute_.

He had a cute laugh, a cute smile, a hot body – okay, that really didn’t belong there but yes, this admittedly was also part of Keith. _Ugh._

Around five in the morning, Lance was annoyed by his restless self and got up. Everyone in his dormitory was still vast asleep, so he tried his best to be as quiet as possible, even if he was internally screaming for the better part of the last seven hours or so and only managed to doze off for a few minutes at a time.

The Ravenclaw common room was tinted in a blue shade of grey, the fireplace in the middle only hosting amber and ash. It was a bit chilly, so Lance tucked in his feet when he sat down at one of the small sofas, and just stared out of the windows. If it hadn’t been for the nearly full moon, the whole sky would’ve been coloured an inky black, and then again Lance had to think about Keith’s eyes and how stars would probably reflect in them, and he hated himself for being back at ground zero.

_Great._

One of the Ravenclaw cats padded towards him, apparently back from an early morning hunting trip. She sniffed cautiously at his hand and then moved along, deeming him not interesting enough, and Lance sighed.

So. Keith liked boys. Keith had a really strong crush on another boy, and Lance didn’t know what he should make out of this.

It wasn’t like he wasn’t happy how much Keith had told him about himself, that he had shown his incredibly soft and insecure side, and Lance could feel the army of butterflies swirling in his body whenever he just thought about that part, but, yeah. Keith’s heart belonged to someone else.

“Tall, dark, and handsome, huh?” he said to himself, Keith’s words echoing in his mind for the last day on repeat. Keith Kogane had went from ‘somewhat aromantic’ to ‘completely unattainable’ really quick in his mind, and it was so, _so_ frustrating.

“Oh, why art thou Keith,” he muttered as he slouched more on the sofa and continued to stare out into the last moments of night. He really, _really_ wanted to talk to Hunk but one, it was way too early for that, and two, even after six years of being his best friend, Hunk still didn’t want to tell him how to get into the Hufflepuff basement. And, considering the upcoming match, he didn’t want to be seen snooping around and spying on their opposing team either. Love had to wait.

After a few more minutes of depressed and love-sick thoughts about the former Gryffindor captain, sleep overpowered him, even if not for long.

He woke up to a bustling common room, most Ravenclaws already somewhat in their fan gear, with banners, posters, and scarves to support their house.

“Hey, Lance,” Florona said as she noticed that he was awake, “you really should get ready and eat some breakfast, the match will start in almost two hours.”

Lance nodded and muttered a small “thanks” as he got up, striding towards his dormitory with a few big steps. He probably wouldn’t have much time to get in his skin care routine this morning if he wanted to get his feelings off his chest in some way, but he also didn’t want to look like a crumpled blanket, so he didn’t have much of a choice. Maybe he could get a grip at Hunk during breakfast.

Half an hour later, he was racing down to the Great Hall, past the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw table as he made out the big Hufflepuff prefect.

“Hunk!” he yelled almost desperately with his broom under his arm, “Hunk, can we talk real quick?”

“Can I finish my toast first?” his best friend whined.

“Hunk pleeeease,” Lance tried with puppy eyes, but Hunk ignored him and took another bite.

“Just sit down and eat first,” he said, shoving an empty plate towards Lance and filled it with sausages, scrambled eggs, and toast.

“Okay, but Hunk, it’s really important,” Lance said as he sat down and shovelled the first fork of egg into his mouth. He didn’t expect to be this hungry until now.

“You’ll do fine, you’re a good captain, and a great chaser. People will love you,” Hunk supplied.

“Yeah, no, that’s not what I wanted to talk about.” He took another fork. “I just realised, Keith is kinda hot?”

Hunk leaned closer, trying to shield their conversation from any prying ears and asked in a whisper, “Keith like in ‘Keith Kogane’?”

Lance threw a quick look over his shoulder at the Gryffindor table to make sure that Keith indeed sat there, kind of disinterested in his own breakfast, and was not standing right behind them.

“Uh, um, yes?”

“Not really some big breaking news, buddy, I knew that’s the reason you were so hung up on him from the start.”

Lance squinted at Hunk’s uncommitted statement.

“Okay, yes, but he has a crush, on a boy, who isn’t me, and I don’t know what to do.” Lance pouted. Hunk let out a sigh.

“And you know that because…?”

“He told me.”

That was the moment Hunk broke into a hearty laughter that usually was very infecting, yet this time it was on Lance’s expanses which really wasn’t funny. At all.

“Listen Hunk,” Lance tried to reason while taking another bite, “this is not a drill, this is serious, he said he was in love with him, and it feels terrible. It’s as though Shay would tell you she was into someone else. Like head over heels.”

“Okay, wait, I have several questions: One, Shay and I are friends and I would be perfectly fine with whoever she chooses to be together with because it’s not my place to tell her who to like and who not to like.”

“That kinda wasn’t a question but go on.”

“Second, what did I miss? Because Shay would tell me about her _hypothetical_ crush because we’re friends –”

“It’s not actually that Shay has somebody else that I know of,” Lance tried to intervene Hunk’s spiralling thoughts, “Just, what would you do if Shay hypothetically loved somebody else?”

“I stand with my previous statement and if Shay didn’t confide in you about who _she_ likes, then I really want to know what happened that Keith Kogane told you something like this. I see no realistic way how that might have happened. Didn’t you say he hates you?”

“Well, yes? Or I thought he did? But apparently he didn’t even realise I also swing the other way so I don’t know if he could be like… jealous?” Lance wasn’t even sure what he was talking about right then.

“Keith, jealous? Of you? No offence but would Keith even know what to be jealous of?”

“Hey, you’re supposed to be on my side! I have plenty of valuable qualities that Keith, in fact, has not.”

“Ok yes, people are far less afraid of you,” Hunk supported.

“Well, actually yes, he kinda implied that? Like, I’m good with people and easily can charm anyone’s pants off – oh my gosh, Hunk! What if he thinks I had a fling with his crush?”

“Lance, I don’t think that’s the ca–”

“But what if? What if I _actually_ had a fling with his crush but I never knew? Do you think Keith would be pissed if he found out?”

“Yeah but you only had like, three guys? And they don’t seem to be Keith’s type to be honest.”

“Well, Lotor–”

“Keith punched Lotor during a Quidditch match, I don’t think that you would do that to your crush.”

“It’s Keith we’re talking about. He works in mysterious ways…”

Lance inhaled the rest of his breakfast as Florona waved at him to signal that their team was on the way to the pitch, and Hunk just patted his shoulder encouragingly when they said their goodbyes.

 

The day was quite clear for November, the crisp air and sunshine easing Lance’s nerves, and the mud underneath his shoes made him feel more determined than ever, mainly because he didn’t want to slip. This was his first match as a captain and like hell he would blow this one up. He was good at tactics and even helped Allura, their former captain, with most of their successful strategies. And with Keith out of the Gryffindor team, Ravenclaw even had chances to win the Quidditch Cup.

Lance wasn’t sure whether to be happy about walking down on his own as he watched a few Hufflepuffs a couple metres in front of him wrapped up in a playful chatter. Florona and the rest of the team were way ahead of Lance but maybe that was also something good. That way he could at least mentally prepare himself before he had to explain their strategies.

With a deep breath he entered the changing room.

 

* * *

 

Keith had no idea what he was doing squished between a group of Gryffindor Fourth Years who were gushing about how well the Ravenclaw Quidditch robes suited Lance McClain’s eyes and a group of Fifth Years who basically did the same. It also had been a while since Keith had been to a Quidditch match where he wasn’t on the pitch himself and, ironically enough, was pretty much the only person in the entire audience who sported a bright red Gryffindor scarf. He must’ve looked ridiculous within the sea of blue and yellow and black, but here he was now, kind of stuck because it probably would take the entire match for him to somehow exit the sidelines if he wanted to change. Lance truly was a people magnet.

Despite being trapped between swooning teenage girls, Keith had to admit that his seat actually offered a very nice view, and he almost wistfully watched how the two teams marched onto the pitch and pushed off the ground when Madam Hootch’s pipe trilled.

Keith really missed flying, it felt like forever since he last felt the rush of air and endorphins cursing through his body and fuck, how he envied the Quidditch players at that very moment.

Even though it was rather cold, both teams were in better shape than Keith remembered from last year, Shay Balmera and her team didn’t let Lance’s Ravenclaws score as many points as the team in blue probably wished and also got a decent amount of their own scores, the snitch still out of sight after half an hour of the match. Slowly, Hufflepuff was in the lead with 70 to 40 points, and it was obviously nagging their opponents. Both seekers observed the air with intense glares, and even Lance seemed to grow a little nervous.

Keith chewed on the insides of his cheek, there was no way that the snitch could vanish for so long. He didn’t pay much attention to the rest of the match because not seeing the snitch drove him crazy, though he wasn’t even a player, so he only heard a collective wincing and groaning as apparently one of the Ravenclaw beaters apparently had knocked out one Hufflepuff chaser. Professor Smythe immediately sprinted to the unconscious student when she hadn’t moved for roughly a minute and conjured up a stretcher, ordering two students from the stands to bring their house mate to the Hospital Wing, and the game resumed.

McClain’s team had a much easier time now with one of their opponents gone, and they _scored_. While Balmera was an impeccable keeper, she only could hold so many goals when Ravenclaw had the quaffle in their possession 75% of the time. The speed and rhythm between the three Ravenclaw chasers let even Keith forget to look for the snitch. Ravenclaw was in the lead with 140 to 60 points when it finally made its first appearance, and the two seekers bolted like there was no tomorrow. One of them almost ran into Florona Peixe, and apparently that threw the other one off as well, and the snitch was gone again. Lance yelled something at his seeker that Keith couldn’t understand, probably some tactics and encouraging words and…

_Okay no, that smile should be illegal._

Keith covered his face with his hands, rubbing them over his eyes as though that’d make it unseen and stopped his heart to flutter like crazy. This was so, _so_ stupid.

Ravenclaw’s score continued to climb up, after another ten minutes they had reached 200 points with 70 points for Hufflepuff, and it slowly got to McClain’s head, apparently. Keith was surprised that the boy hadn’t fallen off his broom at some point during his more and more elaborate victory dances mid-air. While Keith couldn’t bear to look because one, it just looked embarrassing and two, he just really didn’t want to watch Lance break every bone of his body, Lance’s fans around him giggled happily and whooped with their object of adoration.

 _Why on Earth_ could Keith not have normal friends that could go and watch the Quidditch match together with him instead of being stuck _somewhere_ in a crowd where he didn’t want to be, without people who tried to draw Lance fucking McClain’s attention any second possible and cause Keith’s early death through second-hand embarrassment.

While Keith wallowed in his misery, Ravenclaw made another two scores, and when Keith finally looked up to see why half the stadium was cheering, Lance _fucking_ McClain floated only a couple of metres away from his seat, turned towards their stand, and he had the _audacity_ to wear the most self-confident, lopsided smirk that Keith had ever seen and then he winked – fucking _winked_ – at Keith and flew away.

Keith stared blankly at the spot where the Ravenclaw captain had been only seconds before, his brain not working even one bit, everyone around him screaming as though they just shook the Weird Sisters’ hands, and Ravenclaw got _yet another_ score.

Balmera obviously urged her team to get back on track, even the snitch couldn’t help them now, and as far as Keith remembered that only happened once in a Quidditch world cup final.

This was insane.

Hufflepuff managed to score one point again, Ravenclaw countered, and then _the snitch was back_.

As though awakening from a coma, the Hufflepuff team seemed to regain their agility because every second counted, the snitch – without another score – worked against them, and McClain seemed to realise this as well. Balmera was a force to be reckoned with, as though someone flipped a switch, she was the most excellent keeper Keith had ever seen, letting no attempt past her hoops while their new Third-Year seeker feverishly tried to keep the other seeker away from the snitch. At one point, a Hufflepuff eventually got hold of the quaffle, and they scored – just in time when their seeker reached the snitch.

Everyone held their breath.

Madam Hootch’s pipe called the end of the game, and nobody could believe what they’ve just witnessed.

“A tie?!” someone yelled in disbelieve as they watched the scores align to a perfect 240 : 240. As far as Keith remembered, that never happened throughout his entire time at Hogwarts. The stands started to fill with murmurs of confusion, some of disappointment and others of relief, and then the commentator confirmed,

“It’s a tie! By Merlin’s beard that didn’t happen in years! A tie! I can’t believe it!” The commentator continued babbling on while the first people started to filter out of the stadium, still perplex to what just had happened. The usual storm onto the pitch to congratulate the winning team was completely left out, and the complete disregard of Hogwarts’ Quidditch traditions and rituals was plain irritating. Keith had to let everything sink in for now and didn’t follow the others as they left as they now commented on _how excellent McClain had played nonetheless_.

The players had landed by now and shook hands, Lance and Balmera having a short conversation from what Keith could see while the other Hufflepuffs ruffled their seeker’s head and made their way outside to probably check in on their injured chaser. The Ravenclaws were much slower in their exit, they patted Lance’s back and he smiled at them, and somehow Keith wanted to be down there, with them, just to make Lance smile – even though Keith wasn’t a reason for Lance to smile, so there’s that.

As odd as it sounded, Keith really liked how mellow the end of the match had felt, despite the irritation. It felt soft and fragile, but it was good, just as the day had a clear sky and was cold but the sun rays still warmed up his face.

“Hey Kogane, the match is over, you know?”

Keith hadn’t realised how long he had sit there, the stands completely cleared out now except for him, and on the pitch was no-one but Lance McClain, still in his Quidditch robes, blinking up to where he sat.

“I know,” he replied and he somehow couldn’t help his soft smile. He felt so … _happy_. Content.

He watched Lance climb back onto his broom and push himself off the ground to halt just in front of his stand. He couldn’t quite read Lance’s expression, he looked somewhat happy or relieved but still disappointed and something else, and then there was this _smile_ and Keith didn’t know what to do with himself.

“Hoping for a private show…?” Lance asked, wiggling his eyebrows that made Keith snort out a laugh.

“Why are you even still here, shouldn’t you go and… celebrate with everyone else?” Keith knew that Lance was a people-person, so he should be at the centre of any party that was ensuing in the Ravenclaw tower right now.

“There’s nothing to celebrate,” Lance said. His tone was sombre and something in it sounded off to Keith’s ears.

“Well, you almost pulled a stunt like the Irish did in the World Cup ‘94, and I think for a first match as a captain, that’s pretty decent.”

Lance looked at him as though he was a three-headed dog. Something sunk in Keith’s guts. His bubble of content happiness just evaporated and he felt like he did everything wrong that was even possible to ruin.

“I think I’ll leave,” he muttered and stumbled onto his feet in embarrassment. He had just turned to go when he felt a soft touch on his shoulder he probably would’ve missed if it wasn’t for Lance tentative,

“Wait.”

He turned his head. Lance was standing next to him, broom in hand, and Keith was taken aback of how quiet Lance could be if he wanted.

“Sorry, I – Thank you, I guess? It just doesn’t really feel like a reason to celebrate.” Lance looked either thoughtful or entirely forlorn, and Keith hated that he was so terrible at reading him.

“That’s okay, too. Just… you did really well. You deserve to acknowledge that.” Keith tried to look Lance into his eyes because he genuinely meant what he said, but it was so hard to not make it a glare as everything else felt too vulnerable, too open, and he hated that.

Lance wore a small smile until the flash of an idea lit up his face to a splitting grin.

“And hey, I didn’t lose as you predicted it! So I guess you were wrong yesterday!” Without a warning, Lance threw an arm around Keith’s shoulder that made Keith flinch away for a second, and with the slight height advantage he gave him a noogie until Keith elbowed him into the side and effectively made him stop.

“I said Hufflepuff would kick your ass, and they obviously did so I guess I still was right in the end.”

Lance huffed at that but didn’t withdraw his arm. They walked like that until they got to the staircase where it would’ve been plain awkward to go on like that so they didn’t, and Keith really missed the warmth of Lance next to him.

“I also expected you to at least wear a fitting scarf, Mullet, Gryffindor wasn’t even playing today,” Lance teased, and Keith felt his ears burn.

“It is cold and I only have one scarf. You wouldn’t want me to freeze to death, do you?”

“No, I wouldn’t,” mumbled Lance so that Keith couldn’t hear.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know when I can update next because hell, I don't even get time to draw the self-indulgent fanart that I planned, so yeah, writing suffers the same way.  
> Also I'm going to Korea by August and that's just two months away which is _crazy_ so uhhhh... I really have no idea. Don't get your hopes up too much but I definitely WANT to continue this fic because I think it's cute. So. Uh. Yeah.  
>  Stay tuned...?


	4. Blutchers and Basilisks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PINING and TENSION and BUBBLE BATHS.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please bear with my terrible jokes, channeling my inner Lance for this fic has disastrous results.  
> Also if you thought the pining was bad before this, it only gets WORSE.
> 
> Another reminder that this, once again, is not beta-read.
> 
> Small disclaimer: I am bi myself and what Lance says is literally how my Journey™ went (minus the rivalry thing because so far I didn't really crush on girls I actually knew) - obviously not everyone has the same story and experience, and many gay/lesbian people think they're straight, then bi at first until they realise they're homosexual. However, Lance is bi in this fic because duh.
> 
> Also also this is set some point around 2012/2013 because Hogwarts always makes me feel nostalgic af and I always wanted to know how Hogwarts was around the time when I could've been there, so basically that's where EVERY Hogwarts AU I ever started takes place lol.  
> They were in their first year in 2007/2008 btw.

When Keith entered the exclusive captains’ bathroom again the following Thursday, he somewhat expected Lance to be there, and ended up disappointed when he wasn’t.

Lance had a … _peculiar_ effect on Keith. Whenever they were alone, Keith wanted to linger, wanted to see Lance’s soft smile as often as possible, and even his stupid jokes weren’t as irritating and made him laugh at times, and, above all, he liked it when Lance was sincerely himself. Since he discovered this version of Lance, Keith only spiralled deeper and deeper and couldn’t seem to get out of his pining. However, most of the time he had to deal with _public_ Lance, and it was so infatuating and so damn difficult to not die seven deaths a day out of second-hand embarrassment.

His blatant flirting and irritating jokes hadn’t changed much since the week prior – Lance additionally started to throw teasing comments his way whenever Keith was even _slightly_ interacting with another boy, and he didn’t know where to place this.

Currently, he suspected that Lance was equal parts trying to rile him up just for the fun of it -- and if Keith was honest, he somehow even liked it because it meant that all of Lance’s attention was on him, and him _alone_ – as well as Lance trying to apparently figure out who was Keith’s mysterious crush. It didn’t feel malicious just … weird. Unusual. Like, Lance had teased Keith relentlessly after he had borrowed a quill to Daniel Goldstein (mainly because his old one was beyond repair and was getting on Keith’s nerves as it was scratching terribly) – and then asked Keith within the same breath whether he wanted to study with Hunk and him during the weekend.

Keith still didn’t know why he agreed on this even though the urge to put Lance in a headlock and give him noogies had been very tempting at that moment. It probably was because that meant another few hours spending with Lance.

Anyway, now he sat in the half-full tub in the private bathroom and waited. The water barely even covered his knees where he sat right now.

He chose Thursday night for his bathtub shenanigans mainly because he knew Ravenclaw had Quidditch practice after dinner, and realisation just hit him hard at how desperate _that_ looked.

Maybe he should join Lance and find out who else would qualify for a crush by yours truly. He had thrown plenty of hints at Lance throughout the last week already, blatantly obvious hints, he might add, and since Lance didn’t seem to reciprocate, he maybe should just … stop. It hadn’t been good for him the last four years and it probably won’t get any better in the future. Maybe Lance just felt sorry for him and tried to play cupid – in a very strange and not very helpful way, but Keith guessed that was mainly due to his very up-front flirting style. Maybe he shouldn’t fight it. Maybe starting from scratch wasn’t so bad. Maybe something good could come out of it, and so what if it was just to find some … friends.

Keith just realised how strange that word felt, and how sad that actually was. _Friends._

The water now reached his navel and there still was no Lance in sight. Maybe he just showered in the Ravenclaw Tower like everyone else. He knew that the team had left for the pitch around seven, and he was pretty sure that he had left for the bathroom around half past nine, a very reasonable time for Lance to come back.

_No. Fucking drop it already._

This slowly got into stalker territory, and Keith scared himself out by it. He was hyper-fixating. _Not good._

Instead, he tried to revise some of the new spells for Charms, uttering them under his breath, until he heard someone open the door and the rustling of clothes as someone clearly undressed.

Keith’s heart pounded in his ears.

He hoped so much that it was Lance, at the same time dreaded it, too, but not as much as if it was another person. He wanted Lance to come and join him, thus he hadn’t locked the door as ‘occupied,’ but if _someone else_ came in that was … _oh boy_. Could he just die now.

He heard the patter of bare foot on hard marble, and suddenly the soap bubbles on the water surface was very interesting.

“Oh, hi.”

Keith was certain that his heart stopped completely.

He slowly, very slowly, lifted his eyes, the rest of his body frozen in stupor as they continued to take in brown feet, long athletic legs, and ...

Keith squeezed his eyes shut tight.

“Hi Lance,” he said, his face and ears burning because Lance, oh glorious, starkly naked Lance, didn’t even wear a towel around his hips.

“You know, you don’t need to close your eyes, that’s not a basilisk,” Lance said, and Keith really didn’t like where this was going, “though some do say it is the ‘King of Snakes.’”

“Oh my God, Lance, no! Just no!” Why was he crushing on him again? Could he get a refund?

“You don’t have to call me by my title, y’know, Lance is just fine.” That smug tone was just unbearable.

Keith just groaned.

“No but really, I thought you were cool with being naked after you flashed me the last time like that.”

Generally, Keith _was_ cool with it.

After all, he had spent five years in an orphanage and then another five at Hogwarts with communal showers for each house. He had probably seen more dicks in his life than ever starred in his wet dreams, so he _should_ be cool with it.

“Just get in already, geez.”

He was glad Lance didn’t decide to comment on that, too, and Lance climbed into the pool-sized tub.

Now that Lance was at least somewhat decent through the bubble-bath, Keith got an actual look at his face, caked in mud and sweat, with a bruise forming on his collarbone, but Keith wasn’t sure whether that had been a blutcher or _something completely else_.

Wow, that bite of jealousy was really stupid.

“Fancy seeing you,” Lance said playfully, and that was one of those moments that took Keith’s breath away because God, his voice was just the right combination of flirty and playful, sultry and honest, so smooth that Keith had to fight down a shiver.

“Fancy seeing you,” Keith replied with something that he hoped resembled a smile. He wasn’t so sure, it was just really wobbly.

Lance didn’t reply to that, just watched him with an expression that Keith couldn’t decipher even if he tried. It wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, but the silence dragged on and Keith didn’t know how to deal with a not-talking Lance who also still didn’t seem to fully relax in the waters.

When the water level was almost up to the edge, Keith stood up and closed that taps he had opened and sank back into the water. Lance resurfaced with a gasp for air, face now considerably cleaner, and Keith’s eyes followed one of the droplets that ran down his cheeks, his neck, to that bruised spot on his collarbone.

Maybe he should really move on. It was stupid anyway.

“Did you finally get your make-out session with Nyma?” he asked as casually as he could, nodding at said spot on Lance’s collarbone for emphasis.

Lance looked down to check what Keith meant.

“Oh. No, that was Dorian Taylforth, y’know, that Slytherin Fifth-Year?”

“Isn’t he on the Slytherin team?” So maybe it _had_ _been_ a blutcher.

“Yeah, apparently it was a dare from his team mates so I played along but he got really needy at the end, a miracle that Filch didn’t find us ...”

_That was … fine. He was fine. He wanted to move on anyway._

“Lance McClain, handing out the gay crisis since 1996,” Keith grinned, sometimes you just had to grit your teeth and rip the band-aid off.

“You think all the boys in nursery school were thirsting after me already,” Lance grinned back, “and here I was always told I only was a ‘ladies man’ back then.” _Wow, they were close._

“Well, regarding how many you already got queued up for you …”

How could Lance be even closer now, that shit was _dizzying_.

“Do you wanna get in line?” _That. Fucking. Voice._ Lance’s muttering did _things_ to Keith and that was _really not good._ He was just teasing. _Get a grip._

“I don’t like to wait,” he whispered, his own voice hoarse because Lance was impossibly close _so why would he talk normally,_ there was a mere inch between their bodies, and it felt _electric_.

“I can give you out a free trial if you want.”

Keith could feel Lance’s breath on his cheeks, it smelled a bit like vanilla pudding with chocolate sauce and cherries that he had for dessert, and there was only one inch that kept Keith’s resolve.

“I’m pretty sure I know that I’m gay. Thanks for the offer, though.”

Lance apparently got that hint and backed away.

_Wow. He almost got Lance to kiss him._ That thought made him giddy, and apparently it showed on his face because Lance was grinning too, maybe to laugh it all off, the tension, the … _friction_.

“Any time for you, Kogane,” he winked and sat down next to Keith.

_So it really wasn’t meant to be serious._ Somehow Keith was glad he had the hunch and backed out. Because he didn’t know how he could deal with it if he just became another story for Lance to tell his friends, about how needy he was or about how bad his kisses were.

Maybe, in a far future, he might kiss Lance just to know what he had missed out on. In a far future where his heart didn’t speed up anymore whenever Lance threw a smile his way, where he moved on and didn’t have butterflies fluttering in his stomach, where he didn’t have to cringe every time Lance told one of his stupid, _stupid_ jokes. A future where the simple _possibility_ of touch didn’t send his brain haywire, where they could do their homework at the same table and Keith could concentrate on his task instead of watching Lance biting down at the end of his quill.

But currently they sat naked in a giant bathtub and Keith had to will his boner down.

They sat in silence for a while, yet somehow they couldn’t get back to the relaxed atmosphere they had the last time. Keith kinda missed that.

“So…” Lance started at some point, making Keith look at him, “I’m just being curious but, do you remember when you first realised you were gay?”

Keith snorted at that.

“The better question would be, when did I ever think I wasn’t? Because to be honest, I don’t even remember. I just always wanted to kiss boys. Later I just had a word for it.”

“I guess the gay crisis is a bit different than the bi crisis?” Lance let out a huff and craned his head towards Keith, and he just looked so goofy that Keith had to giggle again.

“Well, I don’t know? Maybe? How did you know you’re bi?”

“Someone actually asked me whether I had a girlfriend … or boyfriend because that could be a possibility too? And up until that point, I had never actively thought about it and I was like, I really wouldn’t mind to have a boyfriend? Because I always knew I liked girls and had a big fat crush on one for over four years, so boys never really seemed like a second option I was allowed to have. It’s either gay or straight. But eventually, a lot made _so much sense_.”

Keith smiled at him sympathetically but something felt …weird.

“But how did you not know before? Didn’t you see a nice guy and thought ‘wow he’s hot’ at some point?”

“That’s why a lot made more sense afterwards,” Lance tried to explain patiently, “like, I always liked to look at male bodies when I was younger, like those naked statues or baroque painting in the art museum, and I always thought it was just about … how I wanted my own body to look, some kind of physical role models? And I mean I found them arousing but always thought it was because they were naked and attractive and that was somehow linked to my own body being seen as this and that got me off? My brain went quite some lengths to not make it look gay.”

Keith couldn’t hold in the snort that now came, even if he wanted to, because this thought process was just hilarious.

“Yeah, that’s definitely different from my gay experience.”

“Also made me reconsider some sentiments I had on other guys.”

“So you also had a coping mechanism for real boy crushes?”

“Yeah, mostly rivalry. It’s very pre-school but in my defence, I didn’t know what that feeling was and it kinda worked in my favour. I got really good at tackling.”

“That counts as something, I guess?”

_Wait._

_Rivalry?_

_Nonono,_ Keith’s heart was already speeding up again.

He remembered a vivid scene from their third year where Lance declared to him that he, too, would get into the Quidditch team, _just you wait Mullet, I will beat you in every single match,_ with such an angry expression that it left 13-year-old Keith confused and very baffled because, really, he didn’t _stop_ Lance from getting on the Ravenclaw team. He even remembered writing a letter to Shiro about it because he didn’t know what to do.

From then on, Lance had constantly been in his hair about the stupidest things, though Keith couldn’t exactly complain, either, as it drove him to always do his best, to keep going even though he sometimes felt like giving up. And apparently, that also did things to his heart.

That thought made Keith’s cheeks flush.

_On the other hand…_ Keith had realised throughout the course of the last couple of years that Lance’s interest had always been fleeting, rarely stayed with one person longer than a month, and thus, even if Lance had had a suppressed crush on Keith when they were thirteen, he definitely did not now.

_That was okay._

It was time to move on.

 

* * *

 

Lance definitely was used to rejections by now, so _why was it bugging him so much that Keith didn’t want to get it on with him?_ He might be a virgin but he still had a crush on someone, and not everyone wanted to ‘practice’ to impress their chosen one. It was perfectly rational to _not_ kiss Lance.

_But still._

They _had_ the tension, and Lance had been pretty sure that he had pushed the right buttons because Keith had been melting like butter in the sun, _and yet…_

Once again, Lance laid wide awake because of a bathtub encounter.

Keith’s breath had smelled like pumpkin juice. His eyes looked purple if the light shone right.

They had been a literal inch away from kissing. From touching. Skin on skin, only a thin film of water between them.

_And yet, they didn’t._

Lance sighed.

The best thing was, Keith now probably had pieced together that Lance’s proclaimed rivalry was actually a crush. Lance was an expert at digging his own grave.

Quidditch had been good today, though. His regime probably was brutal but he didn’t want to repeat the disaster that was their first match, and his team didn’t protest as they tried new moves over and over again until everyone almost fell off their brooms.

Every time Lance had glanced at the third stand from the score table, however, his heart had started to flutter. Because there he had sat, that one red spot between a sea of yellow and blue, and Lance couldn’t look away.

Keith had always been distracting in his unconscious rebellion. He had a haircut that wasn’t trendy for over two decades now, for Christ’s sake, and it drove Lance mad because Keith really shouldn’t look good in it either. But he did.

Lance whined.

At least they would have their casual study session on Saturday, maybe he could convince Hunk to invite Shay as well. _A study date._

That sounded cheesy.

Keith would probably frown at that. Maybe even crinkle his nose in that really adorable way.

Perhaps he should remind Keith of their study date in Potions or Herbology tomorrow, just to see his reaction.

_Yeah._

_Didn’t sound like an awful plan for tomorrow._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, this chapter was brought to you by Procrastination™ - best way to release uni stress you wouldn't have if you hadn't procrastinated before already!
> 
> I'm great at copy-writing.
> 
> (no but seriously, animation is kicking my butt right now and I wanna cry)


	5. Bewitching Bookworms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A study date. Hunk gets pissed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really shouldn't have written this but obviously I did and now I have 12 hours to finish my project until we'll have our presentation. Talk about priorities.
> 
> It's no stellar writing but I needed to get it out of my system because I kept distracting myself with it.

“Sooo… about our study date,” Lance grinned smugly, and Keith crinkled his nose in irritation. _Lance was just teasing._

“You’re just too lazy to come up with your own Potions essay,” he sniffed, the temperatures had continued to drop even further and Keith’s nose had been running immediately after only getting a whiff of fresh air that day. Currently, they were walking down to the greenhouses and Lance’s ridiculously long legs were annoying to keep up with. Actually not because Lance was doing that backwards walk to keep facing Keith without even stumbling.

“Well, admittedly, advanced potion books are not really exciting. Also, you could help me study some _other_ things if you know what I mean.” And there it was again, the ominous eyebrow-waggle. Keith sighed.

“No, I’m _not_ gonna help you study George Palmer’s ass.”

“I _knew_ you checked that one out! I _knew it!_ ”

“He is the only one who has his library shift on Saturdays. He’s basically the only person guaranteed to be there for the entire afternoon.” Keith sniffed again.

“You still didn’t deny that you checked him out, I mean look at that booty, _damn right!_ ”

“Oh my God, just shut up!” Keith even escaped a nervous giggle. He definitely could blame the cold for that blush, right?

 

* * *

 

This time, Keith didn’t mind that much to be paired up again with Lance, even if he had to endure more teasing about George Palmer as they extracted the poison of Arusian Death Lilies. As soon as Lance dropped the infamous “tall, dark, and handsome” line, Keith knew he was still out to find ... Keith’s crush.

Keith’s face heated up when he thought about the irony.

George was, admittedly, handsome with a dark complexion, he was well-built and even had one or two inches on Keith, which kinda was doing _…something_ to him, but he was such a goody-two-shoes and _…_ ugh. He would never get over Lance, would he?

Hunk Garrett and Shay Balmera joined him and Lance as soon as class had ended, and together they made their way up to the castle. It was weird how easy conversation flowed, Keith didn’t feel too awkward to contribute a few humming agreements and other non-committal sounds because soon, he noticed, he had been spacing out, taking in Lance’s profile, his bright eyes and beautiful smile, and _Jesus Kogane get a grip_.

Keith didn’t really notice that they had made their way to the Great Hall and over to the Hufflepuff table, so now that he noticed more and more unfamiliar faces around him, he just stood there in irritation, whereas Hunk, Shay, and even Lance had sat down already and were looking at him expectingly.

“Just sit down, dude, we’re not gonna bite,” Hunk joked, and with a bit of hesitation, Keith drew back the chair next to Lance and sat down. _Was that what friends were allowed to do? Sit at another house table?_

 _Of course they do_ , Keith’s mind berated him, _they do it all the time if you hadn’t noticed it the last five years, you moron._ Keith mentally winced at himself.

He still was unused to not sit at the Gryffindor table where everyone knew he kinda kept to himself and he could tune out the chatter around him as background noise while he tried to wake up over breakfast or mentally go over his routine during lunch and sometimes reading over his homework in case he found some off wording or contradictions if he hadn’t written it down in one sitting. Shiro hadn’t been at Hogwarts since forever so there was no reason to.

So now he listened as Lance excitedly talked about Jason Cho’s adorable pygmy puff, and it was easy to laugh along to because there were no awful jokes or ambiguous meanings and Lance was ... actually funny with how he re-enacted the whole story, and Keith felt his heart stutter and something warm and bubbly blooming in his chest.

He was fucked. Royally so.

Hunk and Shay were really nice, too, and were like that one couple that made everything right while everyone else was reproducing a soap opera. Keith didn’t say that about a lot of straight couples but they were actually cute.

At some point, Keith noticed he had only eaten half his plate, whereas Lance was almost through his second helping, and Keith was baffled when he realised _how much_ Lance had actually been talking. _How did that even work?_

It didn’t even annoy him as much as usual. Far from it. If this was how being Lance McClain’s friend turned out to be, he definitely wanted an annual subscription for the rest of his life, thank you very much.

Keith at some point just gave up on eating all together because the pixies in his stomach made him feel so full already, and slowly more and more students were filtering out of the Great Hall which was also their queue to wrap everything up and say their goodbyes.

Shay and Hunk left for the basement and Keith had expected to just walk alone to the Gryffindor Tower but Lance apparently thought it was a good idea to tag along as Keith steered his way towards the Grand Staircase.

“…okay but really, Professor Haggar is somewhat crazy. Maybe I’ll drop Alchemy next year because those gasses can’t be good for anyone.” Lance just chattered away like it was a normal thing to do in Keith’s presence. Keith hummed at that because he didn’t really know what else to say, he hadn’t really met her before.

“Anyway, tomorrow at eleven? Hunk and I probably will be there a tad earlier because of Care for Magical Creatures.”

“Okay.”

They had stopped at the top of the stairs and Keith realised that that would be their farewell for the night. He really wished it weren’t.

“Night, Mullet,” Lance supplied with a cheeky grin and Keith rolled his eyes due to the nickname he hadn’t heard all day up to this point.

“Night, Lance.”

It shouldn’t be so hard to tear himself away but something unspoken hung in the air and Keith wanted to figure out what it was.

“Night,” Lance said again and actually turned in the opposite direction of Keith. Lance is a Ravenclaw, Keith’s brain helpfully supplied as he sighed and turned around himself to head over to the Gryffindor common room.

 

“I have seen you hang around with McClain lately,” Benjamin greeted Keith as he let himself drop onto his bed in their shared dorm.

“So what?” Keith asked, too tired to do much else because social interaction was exhausting and he just wanted to sleep.

“Kinda weird, now that you got kicked out of the Quidditch team.”

Yeah, Keith was too tired to deal with this shit.

 

* * *

 

“Hunk, which part of ‘he has a crush on someone else’ did you not understand?” Lance hissed as Hunk dropped another book onto the growing tower in Lance’s arms.

“With the way he stared at you ninety-five percent of the time? That’s very unlikely,” Hunk said and Lance rolled his eyes.

They had gone over their dinner conversation about five times by now and Lance was at the end of his wits. He had not been above _actually writing down_ each and every boy that even vaguely fit Keith’s description of future boyfriend material, and it was frustrating how none of the mentioned names so far brought any kind of reaction from Keith, not even Jason and his (admittedly devilishly cute) pygmy puff. So he scratched names that obviously didn’t do the trick and was now down half the list with a small question mark behind George Palmer, which hopefully would be resolved that day.

“Stop being ridiculous, Keith had been very clear about that,” and with a pointed stare at Hunk he added, “multiple times already.”

“Maybe he’s just cautious because, I mean, you _are_ a flirt, Lance.”

“Hey, I stopped doing that.” Lance literally had only had eyes for Keith the entire last week (plus maybe the boys on his list to determine Keith’s future husband, but that was one-hundred percent Keith-related.) Hunk was in no place to judge.

“You know it’s gonna take at least some time to actually notice that? Just a fair warning.”

They made their way through the bookshelves towards their designated study area.

“That one time I try to do something good and selfless and you need to jeopardise it because you believe Keith is crushing on me. That’s never gonna happen. We will get Keith his actual boyfriend of his dreams.” Lance slid onto one of the few chairs scattered around and thumbed open the first book titled _Scales of Scandinavia_.

“I didn’t expect you to be this oblivious.”

Lance pulled an eyebrow.

“Says the dude who still didn’t ask Shay out for a date.”

“We are just friends, Lance. If she were interested, she’d drop some hints.” With those words, Hunk successfully hid between another book the size of his torso.

“Shay is dropping hints like giant dragon eggs, I – you know what, forget it! I don’t need to watch this pining for the next twenty years or something. Which I probably will, going by your current pace.”

Hunk sighed at that but remained silent, and so they passive-aggressively read their books on proper dragon care.

The library was fairly busy as it was the weekend and Lance had never been good at keeping his attention span on one thing for very long, so after half an hour or so of reading and noting down what seemed noteworthy, he soon found himself losing track an watching the students that tickled by. Books sometimes made fairly comfortable pillows, he noted as he watched a boy not much shorter than him wandering through the rows of bookcases. His red jumper stood out together with pale, unblemished skin, pitch black hair, and his jeans definitely gave his ass the attention it deserved, or so Lance thought.

And so he watched how Keith Kogane assembled a small collection of potion books, stretching up to reach for those on the upper cases, and Lance found it weird how such a small sliver of naked skin could do so much to him when he already had seen Keith butt-naked before.

Keith definitely was early, still twenty minutes before the clock struck eleven according to Lance’s watch, and something deep inside him actually preened at that fact. Something very deep inside him hoped that Keith wouldn’t care about that other boy anymore, and even deeper he wished Hunk’s words were true, that Lance was that other boy. This was ridiculous.

Lance hated that as soon as he couldn’t get something (or someone in this case), this fact alone started to pique his interest. It was cliché.

“Lance, stop doing the puppy eyes and just bring him over.”

Lance jerked out of his train of thoughts at Hunk’s words and pouted. “I’m not doing the puppy eyes.”

Hunk fixed him with a glare that told him _‘I see right through your bullshit’_ and Lance got up with tightly pressed lips as though he had to clean out dragon dung. Keith leaned against another table a few rows away and thumbed through the books’ indexes to determine whether he even got the right ones.

“Uhh… hey,” Lance said with a small wave as he approached Keith, and the latter looked up, surprised.

“Hi.”

Silence.

_Man, that was awkward._

“You’re early.”

“Didn’t know you rented the library.”

_Fair enough._

“We… we’re sitting over there, feel free to join us. If you want. Uuhh… yeah.” Lance hated how awkwardly long his limbs felt when he turned around and could feel Keith’s eyes on him as he walked back to their own table. From the corner of his eye, Lance observed how Keith put away two of his books and made his way up to them with the rest of his pile, wordlessly sitting down next to Lance and his cluttered mess of homework.

They sat there, still without uttering a single word.

Keith decided it was a great time to get out his parchment and quills, and soon silence spread across the whole library with only the scratching of writing students and an occasional murmur between the shelves. It was deafening to Lance, wearing him down.

He felt incredibly stiff and too scared to move or even breathe because apparently, Keith didn’t really want them to, well, share the work. He just did his thing, in silence, and expected Lance to do the same, in silence. And Hunk, well, Hunk still gave him the silent treatment after pushing him too much about Shay. Fair enough.

“I will be leaving now, I promised Shay to help her polish the Quidditch equipment after practice,” Hunk suddenly announced and slapped his books closed.

“Oh, right, your girlfriend is the Hufflepuff captain. She’s a really great keeper,” Keith said, his face suddenly lighting up in recognition and the fact that he could contribute something to the barely started conversation. It didn’t last long, though, because Hunk’s reaction probably wasn’t what Keith had been expecting. “D-did I say something wrong?” he asked, panic spreading on his features under Hunk’s glare, and Lance wrecked his brain on how to get him out of that state.

“ _Good_ friends. We’re good friends,” Hunk said curtly and left a bit more aggressive than Lance was used to.

Keith stared at Lance, obviously wrecking his own brain on what he did wrong. Lance huffed out a small chuckle, the stiffness bleeding out of his body finally, and he shot a comforting smile at the boy next to him.

“He’s just a bit sensitive to that topic, ‘tis all.”

“Wait, did they have a fight? Did they break up? They seemed so happy yesterday.” It was almost… adorable how upset Keith was about this.

“It’s all fine, mate. Hunk certainly wished Shay was his girlfriend, but alas, he’s too much a chicken to actually do something about it.” He patted Keith on the back to loosen him up a tad. Apparently had the opposite effect since Keith tensed under his touch.

“Oh. Uh. Well, I just, uhm… assumed they were. You know. A thing.” Keith chewed on his lip. “I mean, they are so _obvious_.”

“Tell me about it,” Lance giggled, “that’s going on for the better part of two years now.”

“How can this take them so long?” Keith really didn’t seem to grasp it, and Lance had to smirk. He leaned his head on his hands, cocking it slightly so he looked right at Keith.

“Well, _you_ tell _me_ , Kogane?”

Keith froze, his cheeks turning pink, and Lance really, really wish it were him. Irritating Keith was the next best thing.

“Why, Keith, does it take so long to confess someone your undying lo–”

“That’s not the same!” Keith snapped, earning him a harsh hiss from the neighbouring table.

Lance eyed him with a hint of concern because he really didn’t want Keith to break down crying on him, that was basically the opposite of what he originally wanted to achieve.

“They at least are friends already! They like each other!” Keith started to avoid Lance’s eyes. “And even if he’s into guys, I don’t even know if he would like me as a friend. He probably doesn’t even really care about me. It’s different.”

Lance really hated that sad look on Keith. He really was an asshole for making him feel that way.

“You know, maybe he isn’t the right guy for you. I mean, you’re – you’re great! You’re passionate, and loyal, and – and cute, and if he can’t see that, then maybe … pass it on. He’s not worth it. You’ll find someone much better, someone who wants to know you and be around you for the rest of his life.”

“That’s so cheesy,” Keith hiccuped with a faint, very faint smile.

“You’re gonna get the cheesiest romance under the moon, Kogane,” Lance grinned, his attempts at cheering Keith up even slightly fruitful. He could live with that, for now.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now also with awkward pining Lance.


	6. Stealing Hippogriffs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is scheming and gets Keith tangled up in his plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IDIOTS AT WORK. More at 10.

Keith laid awake that night.

There was this weird, bubbly feeling swelling up in his chest whenever he even tried to close his eyes, and unfortunately he didn’t even feel the littlest bit tired. _Brimming with feelings._ That was rather unusual.

Keith was very sure that it must have been past four in the morning by now, even Mercutio had curled up next to Keith’s feet and snoozed happily after his nightly hunting trip. But still, sleep wouldn’t come.

After another twenty minutes or so of just staring at either the ceiling or his curtains, Keith exited as silently as he could and left for the common room. The fireplace was comfortably warm with the low glimmer of the embers, so he snug up to one of the more comfortable armchairs and wrapped himself up in a rug.

_Lance thought he was cute._

It was stupid that Keith was hung up on exactly this comment but he couldn’t help himself. He shouldn’t feel this giddy but he did because if he was honest … being genuinely happy was nice for a change.

When one of the ember pieces fell down, the new arrangement reminded Keith of Shiro’s face and really, maybe he should write Shiro about it. After all he didn’t have any ties to Hogwarts anymore and thus the teasing about Keith’s ‘puppy crush’ what the Shiroganes fondly called it would remain in their familiar circle.

Now that Keith thought about it, he hadn’t written to Shiro in quite some time, basically since … _Oh. Yeah. That’s why._

Keith’s stomach tied itself into knots.

Maybe Shiro had heard it from someone else already. Maybe they didn’t need to talk about it.

Keith just could picture Shiro’s face so perfectly, it wouldn’t be drawn by anger, _no_. It was this sad disappointment that he could already see frowning at him from the fireplace, and his jaw clenched. Like Keith was that sad, lost case who somehow always managed to ruin his future, again and again. Shiro had been so happy when Keith was appointed Captain, and now he ruined it, like everything else in his life.

Keith curled up more into the armchair, pulling up the rug so high that only his eyes could still squint past the fabric, trying to protect himself from the harsh early morning shadows that crept up to him and soured his mood.

Eventually, he fell asleep.

 

* * *

 

Technically, Keith would have said that this Monday was a pretty ordinary Monday. He stumbled out of his bed with the worst cowlicks, bags under his eyes, and no coordination whatsoever, somehow managed to find two matching socks in his sleep-walking state, and then rushed to breakfast because classes would start in almost twenty minutes.

Well, it would have been an ordinary Monday up until the point where Lance deliberately took a seat next to Keith as he rushed into their Transformation class even ten minutes later than Keith.

The thing Keith bemoaned most was while he himself looked like a grouchy stray cat that hated the world, Lance looked … flawless. His skin smooth, his eyes fresh, his hair styled into a perfect state of disshevelment (which Keith normally would find ridiculous but somehow it looked … good.) Talking about unfair.

“Is there something wrong with my face? Oh my gosh, I knew there was a new breakout coming. Ugh.” Lance sacked into himself and Keith realised he had been staring for too long.

Keith pretended to write something down as Professor Slav droned on with his lecture, trying to fend off the heat from his face.

“Uh, hey, Keith?” Lance whispered, and Keith looked up.

“Hm?”

“You know there’s the Hogsmeade Weekend next week?”

“Yeah…?”

When Professor Slav looked up from whatever he was writing on the blackboard, Lance shifted closer and leaned towards Keith, now speaking even lower.

“Okay, so, I might need to ask you for a favour.” He made a dramatic pause. “In the name of love.”

Keith rolled his eyes that it almost hurt.

“I’m not going to help you woo someone,” he whispered back, somewhat unnerved by the glint in Lance’s eyes and fearing the worst of outcomes. While Lance was a very desired bachelor and definitely a smooth-talker if he wanted, a lot of his flirting was cringe-worthy at best and made Keith suffer from second-hand embarrassment.

“Yeah, no, hear me out,” Lance said, now basically breathing into Keith’s ear, and he really had to suppress a small shiver. Lance stalled.

“Yes…?” Keith asked, eyebrows raised in amusement as Lance still didn’t elaborate on the required favour.

“Uh… uhm, so Hunk.”

Keith hummed.

“We really need to get Shay and him together.”

“But didn’t he want no meddling?”

“He doesn’t need to _know_ we are meddling. Also, he’s driving me nuts right now. How can a person pine so much?!”

_Oh, I’m pretty sure I could give you instructions if you ever wanted,_ Keith thought bitterly.

“You absolutely are aware that this is a terrible idea?”

“I am glad that you ask because this is where _you_ come into play.”

_Why was excited Lance so adorable? He absolutely had no right to._

“I have a vague plan figured out but Pidge told me the most crucial part was too dramatic, so we need to find something else.”

Keith huffed.

“I mean, we could drop _Hunk_ off on a rooftop without his wand. At first I thought we should kinda kidnap Shay but she’s way too competent for this. Also, Hunk is afraid of heights.”

“Hunk is way too competent for that plan, too, Lance! What the fuck? In which universe would you even get him up there?” Keith was, basically, flabbergasted. Who even _did this_ to their friends?!

Well, Lance, apparently. He really wanted to know how his brain worked sometimes.

“But imagine how romantic the rescue would be! Like, Shay sweeping him off the roof on her broom, Hunk clinging to her, close physical proximity, voilà! It’s love.”

“And what excuse do you have for _Shay going to Hogsmeade with her broom?_ ” Keith hissed, hoping that Lance would see the glaringly obvious holes in his logic. “That Pidge kid was right, you definitely need another plan.”

So they hunched over the Lance-acclaimed “Mission Love Potion” for the next couple of days. Keith was glad that Lance focussed all his romantic energies on Hunk and Shay instead of Keith himself, which gave him a little time to breathe and just … enjoy the time with Lance instead of constantly being on his toes about mentioning even a vaguely male name.

“No, we _won’t_ steal a Hippogriff, Lance,” Keith groaned as they sat at lunch, this time at the Gryffindor table. Keith originally had planned to go over the Charms quiz he had laying next to his plate, but as soon as Lance had spotted him in the Great Hall, his homework was done for.

“You are no fun,” Lance pouted, which … looked utterly adorable. Keith had to snort out a laugh to distract from the blush that slowly crept into his ears.

“It’s not _funny_ that you’re no fun, it’s sad, plain sad.” And apparently, Lance meant it because he looked like he was at a funeral.

“Maybe we just should … try something less over-the-top?” Keith said tentatively, his mouth in a tight-lipped smile.

“Alright, alright, tell me what this pretty head of yours came up with,” Lance said, one cheek cushioned on his palm, lazy smirk playing on his lips. And the he poked Keith’s forehead with his index finger. Keith blinked.

_He’s just teasing…_ Keith tried to convince himself. It was weird being in that position again after he was left alone for almost a week.

“Maybe just something … simple. I don’t think they’re people of grand gestures, more like something small and sweet.”

Lance gasped.

“A date at Madame Puddifoot’s!” He beamed like he just created the Philosopher’s Stone.

“Uh, yeah, I guess.”

“No, Keith, you don’t understand, it’s _perfect!_ ” Suddenly, Lance hung over half over the table between them and had Keith’s cheeks squished between his hands, his face incredibly close and way too radiating for Keith’s comfort. “Around Christmas, they have the mistletoe above their doorstep, you are a genius! How did I not get this idea before?!”

And before Keith could say anything else, Lance had crossed half of the Great Hall and stormed towards his dormitory, leaving Keith perplex with his half-eaten banana pancake and an incredibly hot face.

 

* * *

 

Lance was vibrating with energy all day now thanks to Keith’s glorious idea of shoving Hunk and Shay into the small tea shop with enchanted mistletoes. Pidge the meanwhile looked murderous.

“Lance, can you just sit still for a _second_ ,” she hissed and was short of snapping her quill in half. Lance tried to obey but it wasn’t a very futile attempt.

“I think I’m astral-projecting here, Pidge, I found the solution to all my problems–”

“ _Please_ tell me you either got the answers to next year’s OWLs or finally came to the conclusion that you just need to ask Keith out,” she deadpanned as he continued fidgeting.

“We will all go on a group date!”

“ _We_ won’t. I will go to Zonk’s, Honeydukes, and then fucking back to the castle.”

“But then I won’t have a date to go with!” Lance cried more pathetically than he wished he did.

“You got _Keith_ –”

“Not if he goes with his crush!”

“Who now?”

“I did the maths, Pidge – don’t scoff at me like that! – and I narrowed down all boys in Keith-eligible age that even somewhat resemble his description too, then I realised that Keith probably would need some sort of contact with his crush and he barely talks to anyone so it’s either someone from his house or our year because he’s madly in love so he needs to see him on a frequent basis to actually know his personality to some degree. He mentioned really bad jokes so from our year, there are only two more people who somewhat make sense.”

“Please tell me you realised you are one of the options,” Pidge muttered defeated as she listened to Lance’s rambling, but Lance didn’t even hear her comment.

“Griffin and Kinkade are the last men standing, so to speak,” Lance concluded and whipped out the parchment that by now even had a colour-coded list of potential lovers, “and I need to test at least one of them on the Hogsmeade weekend.”

Pidge groaned.

“None of you is even friends with them!” she pleaded to his senses, “Do you know how that’s gonna look?”

“I’m friends with Ryan. I’m not even so sure about him because he is… genuinely funny. He reminds me a bit in Keith, to be honest.”

“Oh, Keith is funny now.”

“Yeah, in this clumsy irritated puppy way. Sometimes he actually has pretty good comebacks, you know.” Lance started to play around with his quill because his hands _just. Wouldn’t. Stop. To rest._ “But how do we get Griffin into this…?”

“I refuse to get involved.”

“Oh _no_ , if you want Hunk to stop pining, you gotta help me out with this one, too.”

“I won’t watch four people hopelessly making gooey eyes at each other, your pining _reeks!_ ”

“Just help me get Griffin to Madame Puddifoot’s, you don’t even need to be present, just pull the strings in the background. I even told Mum to make her casserole when you’re around.”

“I can pull strings in the background alright. Just leave me out of the rest, and you are one-hundred percent responsible for anything that occurs. You take all the blame, McClain, and the casserole is entirely mine to eat.”

Lance beamed.

“Deal.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was super short but I couldn't bear with these ridiculous dorks any longer and needed to post this. The worst part is yet to come, oh boy...
> 
> ALSO OMG ALMOST 100 SUBSCRIPTIONS?????? you guys are incredible.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! Kudos + comments are highly appreciated, as always.
> 
> Here is my [twitter](http://twitter.com/inky_thoughts) and [tumblr](http://inky-thoughts.tumblr.com) if you want to yell at me ;3


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